As is well known in the beverage dispensing art, many conventional beverage dispensers dispense water from a water jug connected to a housing. The water may be pumped from the water jug to a spout for dispensing, or may be gravity fed to the spout. Some conventional dispensers include a refrigeration system to cool the water prior to dispensing.
Water or other comestible fluid dispensed from some conventional dispensers can be treated in one or more manners. For example, water or other comestible fluid can be mixed with oxygen or carbon dioxide to produce an oxygenated or carbonated beverage, respectively. Some dispensers allow a concentrate, such as a juice or coffee concentrate to be mixed with water prior to being dispensed. For example, some dispensers include a concentrate container positioned at a location remote from the dispenser. Substantial tubing and an unobstructed path for such tubing is required to connect the concentrate container to the dispenser. In these and other cases, a concentrate container can be positioned above the level of a spout for dispensing, wherein the concentrate is directed toward the spout by gravity. Other dispensers include a concentrate container positioned below the level of the spout, wherein the concentrate is pumped from the container upwardly toward the spout or a mixing tube where the concentrate is mixed with water. Some beverage dispensers that mix a concentrate with water inject a set amount of concentrate into a stream of water having a known volume, and only allow discrete volumes of beverage to be dispensed. In such cases, the user is not able to control the volume of beverage to be dispensed.